At last our weather seems to be picking up, after what seems like months of rain. We are in a luckier part of the country too, with not nearly as much rain as the west coast of Britain has had. We have however had some really bad windy spells and our local beach front is in a terrible mess, so much damage to beach huts and the promenade. Hopefully gradually it will get sorted over the next few months. There are lots of signs that spring is coming, daffodils galore in my front garden, lots of early flowers – in fact the roses haven’t stopped flowering all winter as, although very wet and windy, it has not been really cold. Lots of trees in our town are coming into blossom, which is really early. Today the sun is shining and it looks very inviting outside. A walk on the beach later!

The website has been updated with three new designs this month. With thoughts of spring there is this cute seasonal design. I also added a design made for anyone who sews. There is also a pretty butterfly design.

Our free machine embroidery designs to download for March are an Easter design and a ballerina silhouette.

My Singer 15K

I painted my sewing room lilac to brighten it up and I am pleased with it. I also had a good clear out in the process and reorganised everything. I even managed to fit another sewing table into the room after moving it round without cluttering it up more! I found a bargain in a local charity shop, which was a vintage Singer in lovely condition. After an oil it sews beautifully. It was too pretty to leave!

My Singer 15K

I found a couple of lilac flowered single sheets in a charity shop and recycled them into a patchwork double duvet cover and pillowcases for the guest bed in my sewing room. It worked really well, I’m pleased with how pretty they look.

Finally I can’t post without spring photographs, so here are a couple of my spring flowers.

We have been very busy creating lots of new machine embroidery designs for the website and these are now available. There is a range of things including some more ‘crazy’ animals, some sports designs and a couple of decorative designs. I love this gorgeous wolf . He would look great stitched on a jacket. This sporty design is ideal on a gift for any sport mad person. Check out the website for what else is new.

We have had a very stressful few days due to our lovely cat Cajun being seriously ill. It all started with him needing a dental extraction on Monday, for which cats have to be anaesthetised. That went fine. On Tuesday morning at home he seemed much brighter and was eating a bit. We had no inkling of the drama to come!

Mid afternoon we suddenly noticed he was struggling to breathe. Very quickly it became apparent that he was seriously ill so we rushed him to our vets – a 20 minute drive away. By the time we got there he was so distressed they had to put him in an oxygen tent. Our lovely vet then stayed 2 hours past her working time fighting to get him stabilised as he had pneumonia. Mid evening we had a call to say he needed to be transferred to the veterinary hospital for overnight care and could we take him. We were warned he could die on the way! That was a very stressful journey but we made it safely. After a night there he was somewhat better by morning, thankfully, so we took him back to our vet for day care.

Yesterday evening as he was much better and stable we were allowed to bring him home. They don’t know why he suddenly got so ill, he had been peacefully sleeping on our bed most of the day. He is an elderly cat so it could be due to the anaesthetic. An x-ray would possibly help find a cause but we don’t want to put him under again!! He is on antibiotics and diuretics which will hopefully get him back to health.

He is such a part of our family it was awful to think we were losing him so suddenly. He is very happy to be home again. We are a lot poorer but he is worth every penny.

After that sad story here is a photo of what we can see from our bedroom window at the moment – very calming.

Our new free special offers for August are now available on the website. These are a very cute robot which children would love stitched on their clothing, bedding or a bag. There is also this pretty little butterfly for more feminine items.

It is very warm here today and our beach looks like the mediterranean it is so packed. The sea did look very inviting! We had a walk out along the Walton Backwaters where it was quiet and peaceful and there was a bit of a breeze blowing. It was deserted! I think half the people who come to the beach here don’t know it exists, which is a real shame because it’s such a beautiful wildlife area.

Our poorly cat, Cajun, is much better now he is on regular medication and has had his teeth sorted! He is back to his old inquisitive self. He also tries every way to avoid his medicine and we have to keep thinking of new foods to hide it in!!

Oh dear, haven’t posted for 2 weeks, this is not good! I have been working on the website though, I decided I need to add colour sheets to all our designs as for some reason I didn’t do this in the first place. This involves reloading all the designs again as zip files. It is very time consuming as its eight items for each design and you have to scroll down and mark each one off in a list of every design on the site. The list is in RANDOM order, so it takes forever to find what you are looking for!! Why didn’t I do it in the first place?? I don’t remember is the answer.

Our elderly Abyssinian cat, Cajun, had to go to the vet last week as his arthritis was getting much worse and he had been limping badly. While giving him a check-up the vet discovered his gums on one side looked very unhealthy and infected. So yesterday he went in to the veterinary hospital to have some teeth out and possibly a biopsy. I was very stressed by this as he had cried bitterly all the way to the vets last week. Normally he is a silent cat! The veterinary hospital is much further away. But he was a good boy and much calmer this week.

The very good news is that he didn’t need a biopsy, just some teeth out. He managed to eat his breakfast this morning still. He is on meds for his arthritis and they seem to be working as his limp has gone and he is much happier.

Coming up this month in our store we have some exciting new designs. Focusing on baby items we have several teddy bears and a sweet little duckling that looks really cute on baby clothes. There are some apple trees which would look good on kitchen or home items. We have a spider for arachnologists and a crazy Cheshire cat. Is there a design you’d like to see? Let us know!